


Ein kleiner Traum

by literalfuckinggarbage



Series: As Long as I Watch Over You [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (in the next chapter), Caleb Widogast Deserves Nice Things, Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Caleb Widogast, POV Mollymauk Tealeaf, Pre-Relationship, background nein - Freeform, but they're too dumb to notice yet, even if he can't deal with it yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28295301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literalfuckinggarbage/pseuds/literalfuckinggarbage
Summary: Caleb's least favorite part of late night watches has always been waking the next member of the party, who immediately assumes he's a threat and gives him a very unneeded adrenaline spike. Mollymauk has historically been the worst, and he's been trying different ways to wake up the tiefling without getting his hand cut off by a scimitar. Many different methods had proved unsuccessful, but Caleb was always willing to go the extra mile in pursuit of research.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Series: As Long as I Watch Over You [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072496
Comments: 17
Kudos: 154





	1. Ein Albtraum, kein Traum

It was the end of Caleb’s watch over the Mighty Nein, and he had to wake Mollymauk to take the last one before morning. He enjoyed long watches in the evening, taking the time to transcribe spells and research things for himself or for the group. But this was always his least favorite part, mostly because each of his traveling companions were on edge and tended to jolt awake at the lightest disturbance in their direction. That could be very useful when something was wrong. When it _wasn’t_ it just succeeded in making Caleb’s anxiety spike.

Mollymauk was always the worst too. He was a deeper sleeper than the rest and the volume needed to jolt him awake usually succeeded in waking some of the others as well. Caleb had tried whispering, but it never broke through. When he tapped him on the shoulder, he almost got sliced open with how quickly Molly grabbed his scimitars, looking for the threat. Shaking his arm had a similar effect.

He really didn't want to feel so nervous around the tiefling.

Lately Molly had found out that purring put Caleb to sleep, after an unfortunate incident with Frumpkin getting killed and leaving Caleb without his purring sleep aid. The nearest place to get any incense had been miles away, and his insomnia was worse than ever. Molly had taken a watch with him and the purring had Caleb sleeping through the entire thing.

Now Molly had been taking advantage and lulling Caleb to sleep as they rode along in the cart. It was doing wonders for his normally sleep deprived state, but it was significantly cutting back on his time for research and copying spells. The fact that Molly could purr was a bit unsettling in theory, but in practice lulled him to sleep in a matter of seconds.

It was nice though, dozing off and waking up leaning on the purring chest of the purple tiefling. Frumpkin would usually purr away in his lap too, surrounding him with the grounding sensations. His familiar only purred when they were safe together, so it helped him relax. If Frumpkin could sense no danger, it was probably okay to rest.

If Mollymauk was watching over him, it was probably safe to close his eyes for a moment.

It was the safest he’d felt since he was about fifteen years old.

However, Caleb could not purr. And therefore continued to startle Molly every time he woke him for a shift change in watches. There was no clear way to ease him out of it, to make it clear that he was safe.

But Caleb was always willing to go the extra mile in pursuit of research. So tonight he was planning on just squeezing Mollymauk’s shoulder. The tiefling had done it to Caleb just this morning as he'd passed him some breakfast. He stood up from his seat by the campfire and stretched his back, Frumpkin going over to his empty bedroll and starting to warm up his pillow before he laid back down to sleep.

The answer to the question of how anxious he would be as he tried to sleep remained to be seen.

Caleb executed his plan, carefully staying away from the side of Molly’s bedroll where the swords rested as he gave the shoulder a light squeeze and whispered, "It's time for your watch, Mr. Mollymauk."

The tiefling groaned, but woke up slower at the touch. "Caleb?"

"Ja," he said, relieved at this gentler awakening. This was much better. Already a success.

A lazy grin spread across Molly's face as he answered, "Good, good… thought you might be a nightmare. Dreaming of you is always good."

Caleb didn't know where to begin with that. Probably the fact that Molly wasn't dreaming, though he got cut off just after saying, "Mollymauk, you're not dr-"

But Molly had taken the hand on his shoulder and pulled Caleb off balance so that he tumbled down and was lying beside the tiefling on the bedroll, trapped in his grip. He started rubbing Caleb’s cheek, ridiculously tender, a soft look in his eyes, illuminated by the dim firelight. His red eyes seemed to glow in the dark. The darkvision probably helped him see Caleb’s shock in vivid detail. Molly said softly, “I don’t mind the realistic dreams when it’s you.”

Caleb’s mind was racing. This was a step further than getting close to make sure their caster didn’t get sluggish from exhaustion. This was different from when Mollymauk pinned him to a wall to make sure he wasn’t stealing funds from the group.

This was something else entirely.

This was closer to how Molly had kissed him on the forehead in Alfield.

This was… unfamiliar.

“Are all your dreams very real?” Caleb asked, unable to help himself. If Molly was messing with him, he could play along. He could take a joke instead of watching the tiefling jolt awake. He was used to being the butt of a joke. Or perhaps he could get a straight answer out of the strange tiefling. Molly had been teasing more lately, and pushing to spend more time near Caleb, though he was pretty sure it was just a trick to get him to sleep more. It wasn’t good for the group if one of their strongest casters was sleep deprived.

“Too much so. Just like memories. Memories I don’t want. Hard to remember what was down from up once I wake up, but they’re always terrible. But when you’re here, that’s nice.” His voice was husky with sleep and his tone kept to almost conspiratorial whispers. Molly didn’t stop running his fingers over Caleb’s cheek, tracing over freckles and worrying at a small scar near his ear for a moment.

Remembering the bolt that had made the grazing mark with perfect clarity, Caleb shuddered a moment. But Molly’s movements were gentle, methodical, almost soothing.

Caleb swallowed, feeling the flush on his face grow deeper as the purple fingers continued to run over the side of his face, tingling. It felt… nice. Everything about it felt nice. Too nice. “Do you… Do you dream of me often?”

“More recently. But shouldn’t you know that?" Molly cocked his head as well as he could while lying on his side, an innocent curiosity painted across his face. His tattoos caught the firelight, a riot of beautiful color in comparison to Caleb’s pale skin, washed out to a stark white in the dim light.

Caleb felt insidious guilt curl inside his stomach. He shouldn't be indulging this, even if it started under the guise of not wanting to startle the tiefling. Even if he had been hoping it was just some strange joke. Perhaps it was. Whatever it might be, he didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve anything that felt this good. "I'm afraid I'm all too real, Mr. Mollymauk. And therefore much closer to a nightmare than you hoped."

The hand trailing gently over his cheek froze halfway through one of its movements. Before Molly could say anything, Caleb loosened himself from Molly’s grip and turned away. "Sorry," he murmured, "it's your turn for a watch. I should go."

Curling up on his bedroll, consumed with guilt and still feeling his ears burning with embarrassment and shame, Caleb could hear a few mutterings in Infernal as Molly rose to take his watch. He curled into a tighter ball around Frumpkin who had pushed his way into Caleb’s arms to purr against his chest.

As far as research went, this was definitely a failure.


	2. Ein Olivenzweig

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Molly had fucked up.
> 
> Molly had fucked up more than he usually fucked up. Which was saying something.

Molly had fucked up.

Molly had fucked up more than he usually fucked up. Which was saying something. 

Of course Caleb would try to be more gentle with waking him up. Of course Caleb would figure out how to ease him out of sleep, even when Yasha still managed to startle him.

He was an idiot for thinking that he was dreaming of Caleb.

Even if he had been dreaming of the wizard quite a lot lately, Molly was still an idiot. Usually he was able to at least function around other people. Not let them know that he’d been having dreams about them, dreams that clearly went beyond whatever the two of them had out in the real world. Ever since Caleb had called his purring "cute," Molly had been dreaming of him. Infrequently, but enough.

And now he’d made the wizard so uncomfortable that Caleb couldn’t even look at him.

The expression about letting the earth rise up and swallow you whole started to sound more welcoming, even though it meant being buried alive. Maybe it wouldn’t be quite as awful the second time around.

In the beginning it had seemed so much like a dream. Caleb had just let Molly pull him down to stroke at his freckled cheek like it was any other nighttime vision. He had been a bit more enamored with the wizard than intended as of late, especially after finding out that Caleb would fall asleep in roughly thirty seconds if he was leaning on Molly while he purred.

It was _adorable,_ and Molly might have taken advantage of his newfound powers to convince Caleb to sleep more. Seated beside Molly in the cart with Frumpkin in his lap usually got the wizard another well needed hour or two of sleep, instead of how he usually strung himself out by copying spells until he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

At first he earned his fair share of glares from Nott, but when it became clear what he was doing she backed off. Even she knew the wizard needed some goddamn rest. 

And the dreams were _nice._

They were nothing like the confusing flashes of hyper-realistic memories that filled him with dread. Dreaming of blood and rituals and unblinking red eyes wasn’t his idea of a restful night’s sleep. So when he dreamt of Caleb curling up with him and just snuggling closer than normal?

Vastly preferable.

But now Molly had ruined any chance of making his dreams a reality, of fostering anything between the two of them, all by being a dumbass. It wasn’t surprising exactly, just frustrating. Especially when he was really starting to like the scruffy wizard. Under all the hurt was a silly bastard that Molly was dying to have a drink with.

That was rather difficult when the man in question hadn’t made eye contact with him in over a week.

The best part of the whole ridiculous situation was that Caleb had avoided taking watches. By avoiding any possible interaction with Molly, he was accidentally getting an extra two hours of sleep each night. He’d been acting like that for almost two weeks, and the worst part was no one seemed to notice.

Caleb was just like that. He avoided people, he didn’t talk to anyone but Nott unless prompted, and he didn’t seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary. Not even Beau seemed to realize that Molly was being avoided, and it was eating him alive.

Molly resolved to do something nice for the wizard. Some kind of peace offering.

And as luck would have it, the proprietor of the local magic shop was quite grumpy. A downright asshole, really, but Molly wasn’t splitting hairs. He was too busy slipping a spell scroll up his sleeve and replacing it with a roll of regular parchment while the man wasn’t looking. With the man too busy catching Jester painting a dick on his sign, Molly snuck away from the shop, unnoticed.

Of course no one knew that this silent tension was happening at all, since Caleb wasn't actually acting out of the ordinary. Yasha knew something was wrong with Molly, but at this point he was also resolutely not looking at Caleb, so it was anyone’s guess as to what was irritating him. He’d probably break down and tell her eventually, but he wasn’t prepared to talk about it yet.

What was he supposed to say?

_“I have weird dreams about cuddling our sad wizard and they’re nice because they’re not nightmares?”_

_“I upset Caleb by practically jumping him, totally on accident, and now he hates me?”_

_“I’m going insane because emotions are stupid and I just want Caleb to fucking stop pretending I don’t exist!”_

He kept his mouth shut.

And the next night he got his chance, when Caleb quickly spoke up about taking the last watch so he could transcribe some spells in the light of the dawn. Molly raised a brow about the light, since the wizard could command fire better than anyone he’d ever met, but everyone else seemed too exhausted to care. Maybe they thought he was finally getting worried about straining his eyes, reading in the dark, as unlikely as that seemed. Maybe they were tired enough not to read into every motive of the wizard like Molly had been for the past few weeks.

Molly didn’t press in front of everyone, just managing to take the watch right before Caleb. This time, he’d wake up the wizard instead. He could give him the peace offering, and hopefully things could go back to normal. Maybe Caleb would joke with him again.

He missed that.

Caleb didn’t back out of taking the watch, and Molly could feel the blue eyes on him for the first time in weeks. They looked cautious, as they always did, and Caleb looked down quickly as Molly caught him staring. But there was a sliver of curiosity there. It was definitely a good start.

His watch went by quickly after Fjord woke him up, the scroll twirling in his fingers as he wondered exactly what to say to Caleb. Telling the truth wasn’t his strong suit. Apologizing wasn’t really either.

Neither was figuring out exactly when his watch ended. He’d err on the side of caution tonight, to let Caleb sleep for a few more minutes. Totally not to avoid the confrontation. That would be ridiculous, since it was inevitable.

But soon he could see the sky start to lighten just a tad and he couldn’t put it off any longer.

“Hey, Caleb?” he said softly, bending not to touch the jumpy wizard but to give Frumpkin a little scratch. With the quiet voice and the cat stirring on his chest, Caleb’s eyes blinked open.

Bandaged arms rose up to hold the cat snug to his chest. “My turn?”

“Yup,” Molly nodded, wondering how to start this. His words caught in his mouth just like every time he tried to think this through. In the end he went with, “Here.”

Caleb was still sitting up, coming face to face with the scroll. The sleep flew from his eyes as they were blown wide. Molly tried not to think about how lovely the shade of blue was in this dark light, just illuminated by the fire. “Is that-”

“I nicked it for you. As an apology. I didn’t mean to make things weird.”

Dropping Frumpkin who collapsed on the bedroll with a pitiful meow, Caleb took the scroll and unfurled it quickly. His eyes flashed with some spell as he took in the symbols. “You… You stole this for me?”

“As an apology, yeah,” Molly said, rolling back on the balls of his feet and giving Frumpkin another scratch around the ears.

Blue eyes flew over the arcane glyphs, enraptured. “Do you have any idea how wonderful this is? How _expensive_ this is?”

“I didn’t really ask as I was taking it, no. But it was in a locked box under the counter, so I thought it was worth it.” Molly was pleased. This was already a better conversation than he’d had with Caleb over the past few weeks.

And then Caleb caught his hand and squeezed it. “This is worth well over three hundred gold pieces. Perhaps even closer to five hundred.”

“Is… Is that good?” Molly asked, surprised at the sudden contact. He wasn’t used to this. Caleb never reached out to touch anyone but Nott, unless he was looking through Frumpkin’s senses and trying not to step in a hole or trip over a root.

The red hair shook wildly as Caleb nodded, shining in the golds of the firelight. “It’s a very powerful spell. A fire spell I’ve had my eye on for quite a while.”

Molly’s hand instinctively tensed. He had no idea what Caleb’s past was with fire, but he probably would have grabbed a different spell if he’d known what any of the gibberish sigils meant. Caleb seemed to realize he was still holding Molly’s hand then and quickly let go. “I…” Molly wasn’t sure what he was trying to ask. “Is… Is the fire okay? I know back in Alfield…” 

It was when he’d gotten the first hint that there was much more to the scruffy wizard than met the eye. When he’d felt an urge to look out for him, to make sure he was okay.

Caleb looked away, down at the scroll, then into the campfire. He waved a hand over it, making the dwindling embers roar back to life.

“Fire… It can be dangerous. It can cause pain and destruction and death. But it can help too. It can cause comfort, and warmth, and provide a place to help sustain life. You can’t hate the flames, just how they’re used. Who they’re used by.”

His stare never left the campfire, but he looked a million miles away before he finally shook his head and turned back to Molly. “Thank you for this. It’s a very nice gesture, but you didn’t have to apologize.” Caleb stood and Molly stood with him, moving to go to his bedroll. 

He didn’t argue. He didn’t really have any words.

Before he went to lie down, Caleb squeezed his shoulder once, and said softly, almost so that Molly couldn’t hear him over the crickets and the crackling campfire, “I think I understand. If I could dream of you instead of my nightmares, I would.”

Molly gave a stilted nod, taken aback by how well spoken the wizard was and still at a loss for his own words. The quiet one who hid in the back and never showed his face was hiding a silver tongue. No wonder people bought Caleb’s lies more than Molly’s bullshit. He could never really compete with a wordsmith.

His mind was racing as he slipped back into his bedroll, trying to sort out every strange feeling he had about the situation. He sighed and rolled over, realizing he’d never get to sleep this way. Exhaustion was waiting for him in the morning. An inevitable end to a vaguely stressful and very confusing night.

Until Frumpkin butted against his chin, startling his eyes open as the cat burrowed into the bedroll with him and curled up on his chest, beginning to purr. He almost felt bad for doing this to Caleb; it was like a sleep spell. Instead he was just grateful, letting sleep take him and hoping to dream of confusing wizards.


End file.
